Serena on the verge of her 24th Slam title
WIMBLEDON, England — Hours before her Wimbledon semifinal, Serena Williams spent some time deep in thought and arrived at a couple of conclusions.
For one thing, she shouldn’t focus too much on trying to raise her Grand Slam title total to 24, a number achieved by only one other player in tennis history. And for another, she needed to stay calm on the court.
With that in mind, Williams went out Thursday and made it all look so easy, overwhelming Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2 in 59 minutes to once again put herself on the verge of an eighth championship at the All England Club.
“It’s not about 24 or 23 or 25. It’s just about giving my best effort, no matter what. No mat- ter what I do, I will always have a great career,” said Williams, who at 37 is the oldest woman to reach a Grand Slam final in the professional era. “Like, I just kind of let it go this morning.”
On Saturday, she will take on No. 7 seed Simona Halep of Romania, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over No. 8 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine under a cloudy sky at Centre Court.
It’s the 11th final at the All England Club for Williams, the first for Halep, whose only major trophy came at the French Open last year.
They’ve played each other 10 times, with Williams winning nine.
“I respect a lot what she has done and what she’s doing,” Halep said. “But now I feel stronger, mentally, facing her. It’s a big challenge.”
And after an up-and-down first half of the year, due in part to injury and illness, Williams appears to have lifted her level considerably. She was limited to 12 matches in 2019 until last week. After a third-round loss at Roland Garros on June 1, she stayed in France for medical treatment and finally felt pain-free.
Williams has been this close to adding to her title total before: In 2018, her first season back on tour after the birth of her daughter, Olympia, Williams reached the finals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open but lost each time.
That has left her Grand Slam total at 23, a record for the professional era that she established when she won the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant — but one fewer than Margaret Court accumulated while playing part of her career against amateur competition.